Wednesday, July 28, 2010

was the poorest republic in the old Yugoslav Federation. For the most part, agriculture has been in private hands, but farms have been small and inefficient, and food has traditionally been a net import for the country. Industry still is greatly overstaffed, reflecting the legacy of the centrally-planned economy. Under Tito, military industries were pushed in the republic; Bosnia hosted a large share of Yugoslavia's defense plants. Three years of interethnic strife destroyed the economy and infrastructure in Bosnia, caused the death of about 200,000 people, and displaced half of the population.

Considerable progress has been made since peace was reestablished. Due to Bosnia and Herzegovina's strict currency board regime, which links the Konvertibilna Marka (BAM) to the Euro, inflation has remained low. However, growth has been uneven, with the Republika Srpska outpacing the Federation for the first time since Dayton. Bosnia and Herzegovina's most immediate task remains economic revitalization. In order to do this fully, the environment must be conducive to a private sector, market-led economy. Privatization has been slow, and unemployment remains high. The introduction of a value-added tax (VAT) in 2006 has increased the government's tax revenues and resulted in a budget surplus.

BiH's top economic priorities are: acceleration of EU integration by concluding a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA); strengthening the fiscal system; public administration reform; World Trade Organization (WTO) membership; and securing economic growth by fostering a dynamic, competitive private sector. To date, work on these priorities has been inconsistent. The country has received a substantial amount of foreign assistance but must prepare for declining assistance flows in the future.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Bosnia and Herzegovina (pronounced /ˈbɒzni.ə ænd hɜrtsɨˈɡoʊvɨnə/ or /ˈbɑzni.ə ænd hɛərtsəgoʊˈviːnə/ (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Latin: Bosna i Hercegovina; Cyrillic: Босна и Херцеговина) is a country in South-East Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina (also: Bosnia-Herzegovina/Bosnia and Hercegovina) is almost landlocked, except for 26 kilometres of Adriatic Sea coastline, centered on the town of Neum. The interior of the country is mountainous centrally and to the south, hilly in the northwest, and flatland in the northeast. Inland is the larger geographic region with a moderate continental climate, marked by hot summers and cold, snowy winters. The southern tip of the country has a Mediterranean climate and plane topography.

The country is home to three ethnic groups so-called "constituent peoples", a term unique for Bosnia-Herzegovina. These are: Bosniaks, the largest population group of three, with Bosnian Serbs in second and Bosnian Croats in third. Regardless of ethnicity, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina is often identified in English as a Bosnian. The term Herzegovinian is maintained as a regional rather than ethnic distinction, while Herzegovina has no precisely defined borders of its own. The country is politically decentralized and comprises two governing entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, with District Brčko.

Formerly one of the six federal units constituting the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina gained its independence during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Bosnia and Herzegovina can be described as a Parliamentary democracy that is transforming its economy into a market-oriented system, and it is a potential candidate for membership in the European Union and NATO. Additionally, the nation has been a member of the Council of Europe since 24 April 2002 and a founding member of the Mediterranean Union upon its